Austin's Mexican American Cultural Center reopens

By the numbers: The renovation and expansion project cost just shy of $25 million, paid for by a 2018 voter-approved bond.

What's happening: The renovation of the Rainey neighborhood facility, which first opened in 2007, includes new music rehearsal rooms, a teaching kitchen, and updated galleries, offices and classrooms.

• Additions also include a large shade structure on Zócalo Plaza to expand the ability to have daytime programming in the space.

What they're saying: The plaza formerly was a "rectangular patch of concrete," and the cultural center had to compete with others — people working out or walking their dogs, for example — to make use of their own space, Bud Franck, who directed the project for Miró Rivera Architects, tells Axios.

• The center even needed to rent fences to put up around the plaza for their own Día de los Muertos celebrations, Franck says.
• The aluminum panels of the shade structure in the plaza are intended to evoke papel picado, the traditional Mexican folk art banners displayed during festivals.

The intrigue: Budget constraints due to inflation and construction costs meant an effort to upgrade a multipurpose space into an auditorium had to be scaled back, Franck says.

The bottom line: The renovated center "will be instrumental in our mission to preserve, create, and promote the vibrant cultural arts of Mexican and Latine Americans for the next 20 years and beyond," Angela Means, director of arts, culture, music and entertainment for the city of Austin, said in a statement.

If you go: A reopening celebration on Saturday runs 11am-9pm and includes live music performances, tours of the new and renovated spaces, children's art activities and food trucks.